google was in talks to acquire waze (crowdsourced mapping and traffic) for something in the neighborhood of $1b... waze pulled out because they are an israeli company and google simply could not give them privacy assurances; you can't put "we promise to refuse subpoenas, and tell you when we receive a subpoena that we aren't legally allowed to tell you about" in a contract.

it goes a lot beyond consumer confidence, and it isn't because google is trying to be not evil or just a show because google really is evil -- now that it is known, its going to fark with the bottom line of some really big companies. i dont think this one is going to be all that easy for the nsa to win.

Smelly Pirate Hooker:I'd like to give Google credit for trying to be transparent, but all the govt. has to do is say no and that's it. Then Google can say it "tried" to do the right thing and was stopped by the awful, awful govt. They look righteous to people too dumb to know how this works.

If Google was sincere, they'd release the info and dare the govt. to prosecute. But they won't.

Keep in mind they are only causing a stink now that the information was made public and it's harming them.Had the information not been leaked they would still silently shovel your information over to the fed and thank them for the opportunity.

It's OK to like googles services and general contributions to the technical community, while still understanding they are a corporation who will gladly stab your grandma in the eye to make the stock price go up .00001%.

google is just trying to save face. They have a very cozy relationship with the government and won't do anything to disrupt that.

They are simply trying to save face in the court of public opinion. They got on board with the NSA just like the telcos and all the others.

Google has business docs etc. If folks don't trust them, and they shouldn't it hurts their bottom line.

What is interesting is that if you are a foreign company working in the US and calling your main office outside the US your communications are completely fair game for the NSA to intercept and listen in on. Makes me wonder what kind of corporate espionage is taking place under the guise of National Security